How to make your Corvette's steering wheel look showroom
fresh

text and photography by Greg DonahueEditor's Note: The
author would like to thank Scott Coral of Greg Donahue Collector Car
Restorations, Inc. for his assistance with this article.

Has your padded steering wheel seen better days? It seems that universal
vinyl wraps or duct tape seem to be the most common way to repair these steering
wheels.

Not any more. Zip Products has a padded steering wheel restoration service
available. The original Corvette steering wheels are stripped and restored to
original appearance using all the correct leather, colors and stitching
patterns. If originality is not a major concern, they also offer a Lecarra
three- or four-spoke leather wrapped steering wheel. Our project '77 Corvette
needed a new padded steering wheel, so we contacted Zip for all
the needed parts. The replacement is simple and can easily be done in one
afternoon with simple hand tools. We will also illustrate how you can freshen up
the steering column and attach parts so everything will have that new look.

Now let's get started.

First, disconnect your battery. Then remove the horn button. It will pull off
quite easily. Remove the three screws holding the horn contact in place. Also
remove the contact shims. These vary from car to car. Some Corvettes only have
one, others may have two or three.

The
screw securing the center star can be removed. Then remove the center star,
telescopic lock and spacer. Mark the position of the steering wheel and collar
so you will be able to reassemble the wheel back into its present position.

The screws that hold the steering wheel to the collar can now be removed.
When this is done, you will be able to remove the steering wheel and extension
collar.

Since we wanted everything to look as good as our restored wheel, we decided
to refinish all of the steering column pieces. We started by masking off the
horn button center emblem. Use two-inch masking tape to cover over the emblem.
Then take a single edge razor blade and cut around the emblem. Voila! An instant
cover.

Use a scuff pad or 600-grit sandpaper to scuff up all of the parts to be
painted. After the parts have been scuffed, use 3M's General Purpose Adhesive
Cleaner No. 08984 to wipe them down before painting. We used PPG Duracryl
Interior Lacquer to respray our column and steering wheel parts. Check with your
local PPG dealer. Most of the colors are available.

The column also needed to be refinished. We prepared it in the same manner as
the other pieces, then masked off all of the surrounding interior and re-sprayed
it. You can keep the overspray to a minimum by turning the pressure of the gun
down to 25 to 30 pounds and use light overlapping strokes.

When everything is dry, start the reassembly by installing the extension
collar and steering wheel. Remember to line up your alignment marks.

Now reinstall the spacer, telescopic lock and center star screw. Before you
re-install the star retaining screws, check the telescopic lock. When you turn
it to the lock position, it should lock the telescopic position of the wheel
into place, and you should not be able to push or pull the wheel in or out. If
you can, you are not getting a full lock on the telescopic lever. Realign the
lever hole and try again. You want the telescopic lever to lock the column into
place when it is approximately two-thirds of the way to the right. When you have
achieved this, install the center star retaining screws.

If
your horn button does not work, this is usually the problem: One or two of the
plastic rivets have broken, as you can see here, on the old contact. When this
happens, a new horn contact is the answer.

Reinstall the horn contact and spacers. Next, center the horn button and gently
push it into place. Re-connect your battery and you are ready to go.